Turquoise Trail

REGIONAL OPEN SPACE

By Trevor Burrowes

Open space might be better valued and protected if it serves as many purposes as possible. Some of its current uses are:

- Scenic draw

- carbon sink

- quality of life enhancement (keeping down crime, reducing need for services,etc.)

BUT OPEN SPACE MIGHT HAVE OTHER VIRTUES

- Just as it is a carbon sink now, it could be more of a sink for the wastes of the industrial society we have come to depend on. Among possible added possible uses

- If fossil fuel price collapse causes the grid to fail, other sources of energy would need to be found locally. 

- Madrid may still have coal sufficient to power the nearby region.

- Since coal combustion exhaust is brutally nasty to living creatures, there might be ways to drastically reduce its exhaust harms using open space.

- Long conduits running out of sight over open land slowly discharging exhaust directly into carbon-absorbing vegetation directly attached to it could be examined for its efficacy

BUT IF OPEN SPACE IS BUILT UPON WITHOUT STRATEGIC PLANNING, IT COULD FORECLOSE ON SUCH FUTURE ENERGY AND ECONOMIC POSSIBILITY FOR MADRID .